Thomas Lawton retired as Director of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 1987 and became Senior Research Scholar at that time in order to pursue further research in the area of Ancient Chinese art. As did other curators, Lawton reported to the Chief Curator until he left Freer/Sackler in October of 2001. The agency history for Curatorial - Chinese Art sheds more light on the study of Chinese art at the Freer and Sackler galleries.